


Five Things About Wedding Planning

by Amadi



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: 5 Things, BFFs, Gen, Pawnee Quirkiness, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-13
Packaged: 2017-12-03 05:32:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amadi/pseuds/Amadi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of the process of getting Leslie married.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Things About Wedding Planning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aphrodite_mine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphrodite_mine/gifts).



1\. The Book

Leslie has a book, a three ring binder, the 4 inch kind. The front of the book reads "MY PERFECT WEDDING TO THE MOST PERFECT GROOM IN THE WORLD" with a picture of Ben and Leslie from the Harvest Festival, posing with L'il Sebastian. The book contains page upon page of ideas, guest lists, invitation lists, invitation drafts, RSVP card drafts, save the date card drafts, marriage announcement drafts (for the people who aren't on the invitation list, of course), toast drafts, ceremony drafts, vows drafts. Each is carefully handwritten on ruled paper, and placed in alphabetical order in the book. There are lists of officiants, venues, caterers, florists and dressmakers. There are menus for five different kinds of reception (formal fancy sit down reception, buffet reception, taco and sundae bar reception, cookout reception, JJs diner brunch waffle reception). Behind the written pages, there are dozens of pictures of wedding gowns, shoes, bridesmaids gowns, wedding cakes and floral arrangements, each carefully cut out and placed in photo album pages. Behind the photos are pocket portfolios with fabric samples, CDs from DJs and wedding bands and even poorly pressed flowers.

But the front of the book is the most important. In a waterproof page protector, is the to do list. The to do list is sacred. It is one of the few typewritten pages in the book. Every time something changes, Leslie carefully notes it, then adds it to the to do list master file on her computer and prints a new, pristine copy which goes into the book. There have now been 83 revisions to the to do list -- in the last month.

Leslie also sends Ann a copy of the to do list to her email. Ann keeps the to do list on her phone. Leslie worries that an electronics glitch will erase the copy on Ann's phone so she's begun sending Ann a hard copy of each revision of the list in the mail.

One day Ann got her mail after work and found 19 envelopes, all from Leslie, all with a copy of the list. She now keeps the latest copy in her purse at all times. Her friends at the hospital think that's a bit excessive.

They don't know that Leslie sleeps with the book under her pillow. Ann figures that an envelope in her purse is pretty okay by comparison.

2\. Dress Shopping

"I... love them all." Ann smiled as much as she could, the corners of her mouth turning up, ever so slightly, but the expression didn't come close to reaching her eyes. She blinked and tried to stay calm as she surveyed the five horrendous bridesmaid gowns being modeled by the employees of the Pawnee Bridal Barn.

"These are the best five dresses here," Leslie assured her, patting her arm. She wasn't so sure about any of them either, especially since none of the dresses looked anything like what she'd been cutting out of bridal magazines for the last six months. She still really wasn't sure why they all couldn't just wear nice suits. "I'm pretty sure we're able to get them in the navy blue we'd discussed, right, Lucy?"

Lucy, the proprietress of the Barn, nodded. Neither Ann nor Leslie knew that Lucy's philosophy was that bridesmaids dresses should always be ugly. There should never be any upstaging of the bride, after all. (Lucy had never recovered from being left at the altar when her fiancé ran off with her maid of honor.) 

"We can get these in a nice navy blue for you. There's really nothing like navy blue polyester satin taffeta." Lucy beamed, all treacle and sunshine. "It has such a beautiful gleam!"

Ann was almost entirely sure that she never really wanted to wear an item of clothing that gleamed.

Leslie was just about to ask about other fabric options when the bell at the front door of the shop rang, and Donna walked in. She took one look at the assembled gowns and turned on her heel. "Uh uh, no way. Knope, I'll work the gift table for you, but you aren't putting me in one of those dresses and ruining all my chances of some post-wedding you-know-what. I'm out." The bell rang again as Donna departed and fled back to the safety and tastefulness of her Mercedes.

"Well, that wasn't very friendly of your friend, Leslie," Marlene scoffed, scowling. She didn't sound at all surprised, though. "Does the dress matter that much to the bridesmaids, really?"

"It does to me!" April got up and checked out each dress more closely, hesitating between two that were pretty much identical, but each with one distinguishing distasteful feature. "I think it's between weird lace neckline," April pushed the model forward, "and butt bow." She pushed that model forward and turned her around to show off said bow. "What do you guys think?"

"No on the butt bow," Ann nearly shouted, shaking her head vehemently at the very idea. She could live with some baby blue polyester lace on the navy blue polyester satin taffeta collar. Leslie would do it for her, she was sure. But she couldn't live with a butt bow.

"I think no on butt bows is a good life policy, in general," Leslie agreed. "Let's put this at the top of the list, for now, but table it until we talk to Donna again."

"And Ethel," April reminded her.

"Of course, Ethel too." Leslie smiled at Lucy, who was clearly already counting up the sale in her head.

Leslie opened The Book and pulled out the to do list. _Go to Indianapolis to find MUCH BETTER dresses_ was added to the very top.

3\. The Shower

"Surprise!" All the ladies shouted as Leslie and Ann entered the recreation center.

"No, what? Who? Why? What?" Leslie was startled and scrambled back for the door, the shouting all too reminiscent of the many town hall meetings she'd presided over in that very room.

Ann carefully disengaged Leslie's hands from the door handle and turned her back into the room. "It's your bridal shower! Look, everyone is here!"

Everyone really _was_ there, pretty much every woman Leslie knew in town, everyone who worked at City Hall - even the women from the fourth floor - some of Ann's nurse friends, Jerry's wife and daughters, April's mother and sister, the representatives from the Wamapoke ladies' council that were helping Leslie with this year's Harvest Festival, Diane and her daughters, and even Lindsay Carlisle Shay.

"For me?" Leslie looked around, shocked. She knew that people humored her a lot of the time, and that a lot of people she knew were acquaintances or colleagues, but not really friends.

But she also knew that she had one special friend, who could make all of these ladies forget what they thought of Leslie the government employee or Leslie the elected official to come celebrate Leslie the bride.

She turned to Ann. "You made this happen."

Ann just nodded. It had taken a lot of work, a lot of phone calls and the promise of alcoholic punch, but she wanted to give Leslie as perfect a day as she could.

"You are my most beautiful, special, wonderful, beautiful, talented best nurse friend in the whole world and I love you so much." Leslie pulled Ann into a super tight hug.

Everyone in the room applauded.

4\. The Bachelorette Party

It didn't go as planned, obviously. Afterward, Ann felt pretty guilty that she couldn't give Leslie a night of fun celebration. The shower was great, but it wasn't a chance for Leslie and her closest friends to cut loose and enjoy themselves, and she deserved that, even if she blamed herself for what happened.

Well, the whole Wamapoke artifacts thing was really Leslie's fault. But Ann felt bad about it anyway. She knew Leslie did disastrous things when she was drunk. She could've locked the doors or sat on her or had Babe-raham Lincoln sit on her or something.

But Leslie wouldn't let her take the blame. "Stuff happens when I'm drunk. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's crummy. This was crummy. We'll live with it. When you get married, we do what the guys did and have a party for me too. And April and Donna and everyone, we'll go to Indianapolis and play hoops with Detlef Schremp. I got his phone number from Tom's phone, just in case I ever needed a major celebrity endorsement for a campaign."

"Are you sure? I mean, your party really fizzled." Ann really appreciated how Leslie always took responsibility for things, eventually, even if she was still disappointed.

"I'm sure. Though if we talk about it, when we look back on our lives together when we're really old women and reminiscing and telling our stories, can we forget that I did all those embarrassing things while also wearing a penis hat?"

5\. Before The Ceremony

Leslie looked perfect, like something straight out of a magazine.

"You're the most beautiful bride ever," Ann whispered. She didn't mean to whisper, but her voice didn't seem to want to work. "I'm so happy for you. You're going to have such a great life with Ben." She dabbed at her eyes, determined not to let her tears ruin her makeup or spot the deep blue silk of the designer gown they eventually found in Chicago.

"You're the most beautiful maid of honor ever," Leslie whispered back. Maybe her voice wasn't quite working right either. She took both of Ann's hands. "I'd hug you but if we're all wrinkly in the pictures that'd look bad, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, probably," Ann had to smile at the idea of the two of them standing out from the wedding party as the pair with the wrinkles. "I have something for you."

"You do?" Ann had given Leslie so much already, there couldn't possibly be another gift.

"You have something old and something new, and something blue." Leslie's dress was new, her veil was her mother's - and Marlene was very clear that it was a loan only - and her earrings were beautiful sapphires, a present from her Parks department family. "But you need something borrowed. This was my mom's." She held out a black velvet jewelry case. "She wore it at her wedding. I need it back so one day I can wear it at mine, okay? But until then, I'm trusting you with it."

Leslie gasped when she saw the delicate pearl bracelet. She held out her wrist, and Ann fastened it into place. "It's perfect."

"You're perfect." Risk of wrinkles forgotten, she hugged Leslie, just for a moment, long enough to kiss her cheek.

"You know you're always my best thing, right?" Leslie asked. "I love Ben, but you're my Ann. Sisters before misters, right?"

Ann wanted to believe that nothing would change between them, but she knew that it would. She was determined to roll with the punches, though. A friendship like theirs was worth whatever work it took to keep it. "Sisters before misters, sure."

"I mean it!" Leslie looked stern, her 'you're not being enthusiastic, Ann' face. "Come on. Pinky pact."

Ann smiled, and linked her pinky with Leslie's.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2013 [](http://galentinesday.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://galentinesday.dreamwidth.org/)**galentinesday** exchange.


End file.
